5 Tips You Can Use To Increase Your B2B Sales

Business-to-business (B2B) sales are not what they used to be. Along with the size of the market hitting approximately $7.35 trillion in 2020, the buyer today is more educated and more careful than ever before. They research their needs and what the vendors are offering well beforehand, so as the seller, you need to up your game as well.

It is true that some companies have managed to achieve great success in their business because of their marketing strategies or by hiring better salespeople. However, there are more opportunities than ever before for companies to succeed by adapting to technological advancements and changing buyer behavior.

Determine Your Ideal Customer Profile And Buyer Persona

The first step in your B2B sales strategy is to determine your ideal customer profile and buyer persona. A buyer persona is a detailed description of an ideal customer, which allows you to better understand their needs and wants so that you can cater your content, product offerings, and overall marketing strategy accordingly.

A good way to start defining your ideal customers or buyers is by thinking about what type(s) of companies would be interested in purchasing from yours. For example, if your product is aimed at large-scale enterprises with hundreds or thousands of employees, like an HR software tool, then you should prioritize reaching out to those companies over smaller companies with a few dozen people on their payroll.

Additionally, consider whether there’s any overlap between the types of companies that use similar products or services and, if so, how those potential clients might differ from one another (e.g., their size and geographic location). Considering these factors while developing your B2B sales strategy can help ensure its success later on down the line.

Invest In Content Marketing

Content marketing is a great way to attract customers and increase your brand awareness. It’s also a long-term strategy that can maintain a steady flow of clients towards your way. Content marketing gives you an opportunity to build relationships with potential customers, show them what you’re capable of, and build trust with them over time.

With content marketing, you’re creating quality content for your ideal customer, the kind of stuff they’d love to read or watch. So think about topics that are going to be interesting and relevant for them, and make sure that whatever topic you choose has a connection back to your business in some way so it would still be appreciated by someone who’s not yet familiar with what it does as well as someone who already knows all about it.

For example, if an IT company wanted more B2B sales leads, they could create educational videos on how businesses should protect their data from cyber-attacks so they don’t get hacked into.

It is important to prioritize your audience’s needs over your sales message when creating your content. Only 66% of B2B marketers follow this strategy, but of the most successful of the bunch, 88% do.

Focus on Account Planning

Account planning is the process of researching and understanding your customer’s business needs and personalizing your plans to help them solve those problems. You can maximize these benefits by using a CRM solution, such as the one offered by Salesforce.

Salesforce is a company that provides software that is immensely useful for account planning. Its Customer 360 app allows different teams, such as IT, marketing, or sales, to get a single, shared view of the customer profile, helping plan for that account effectively. Account planning in Salesforce can give you an edge that you otherwise would not have had and help you get more work done in less time.

The best account plans are created by someone who knows your business inside out, so it might be a good idea to assign this task to someone on your team with in-depth knowledge of the products or services you provide.

When building strategies targeted toward your high-profile accounts, you must ensure that your sales team and marketing team are working in tandem, which means clearly defining who makes the decision at what point.

There are two main types of account plans. Buyer-centric and company-centric. A buyer-centric plan identifies top decision-makers at companies that would benefit from using your product or service. These people will then act as primary contacts throughout the sales process.

Company-centric plans focus on broad market segments rather than specific individuals within those segments. They’re useful if you want to try selling into new industries but don’t have much experience doing so yet (or if all potential clients fit into one industry).

Be Consistent On Social Media

Social media is an excellent way to reach your target audience and engage them on a daily basis. The more you post, the more they’ll get to know you and realize that you’re someone they can trust. You can use social media to promote your content as well!

For example, if you just published an article about how to increase B2B sales with social media, post about it on Facebook and Twitter every day for a week in order to build familiarity with potential customers. This helps establish credibility among consumers as well as create word-of-mouth marketing for future products or services offered by the company.

Social media is now also used for lead generation. Linkedin was once used primarily for recruitment but is now also used for getting in touch with potential buyers and providing them with information about one’s products. Around 80% of all leads generated via social media are generated through Linkedin.

Email is also an effective sales tool today. Data indicated email marketing generates $36 for every $1 invested.

Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Responsive and Fast Load Speed

Your website should be mobile responsive, meaning that it can easily adapt to different screen sizes. If you have a site that’s not responsive, then people will have a bad experience when they visit your website on their phone or tablet. This will not only create a poor impression about your company to your potential clients, but Google will also be less likely to recommend your website to people.

If you want to check if your site is mobile-friendly, there are some free tools out there (like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test) that will allow you to do so. In addition to making sure your website is mobile responsive and has a fast load speed. It’s also important for the content on your pages to be optimized for search engines so that potential customers can easily find what they’re looking for.

Once upon a time, sales used to be primarily about people. Being able to connect with your clients on a human level gave you an edge over the other vendors. While that is still true to some degree, it is much more important to now properly strategize your sales tactics.

Buyers becoming more and more educated is not a problem for sales teams. It is only an opportunity for them to rise above and leave the people unwilling to adapt behind.